Town Hall a valuable experience: Principal

BY MICHAEL BOURGUIGNON | What makes a university
great and how does McGill University rate? Those were the questions McGill
Principal and Vice-Chancellor Heather Munroe-Blum hoped to tackle at the
March 4 Town Hall meeting, held in the Student Society Ballroom of the
University Centre.

Despite the venue, Prof. Munroe-Blum got her answers mainly from faculty and
staff – a turn of events that Kelly Ebbels, co-ordinating news editor at the
McGill Daily student newspaper, suggested during the session's Q&A might
have been due to the fact many students were busy with midterms, attending
classes and Students' Society of McGill University elections.

Still, the informal session touched on a number of issues Prof. Munroe-Blum
said the administration is either already working on or will start to work on
in the near future.

"Your suggestions inform our work as the administrators of McGill," she said
toward the end of a preamble in which she lamented the lack of opportunities
her schedule permits to receive such suggestions first-hand. She drove home
the point during the Q&A.

"One of the advantages of the Town Halls is that I get to learn about things
I didn't know about," she said in response to a question from architecture
student Mehran Gharaati, who complained of a lack of space and funding for
graduate students in architecture, an issue Prof. Munroe-Blum promised to
investigate.

When biology student and McGill Sailing Team coach Tyler Hunt suggested the
university could do a better job of engaging students in campus life by
providing greater funding for "third-tier" sports teams, Prof. Munroe-Blum
noted that, though "speaking as a complete non-athlete," she appreciates the
team-building and camaraderie that come with participation in university
sports and hopes to meet with McGill Athletics to determine priorities and
discuss ways of using philanthropy as a means of boosting funding for sports.

Other questions prompted Prof. Munroe-Blum to tout McGill's efforts toward
increasing the visibility and viability of the University's aboriginal
community; its burgeoning training program for teaching assistants; its
upcoming partnership-building mission to China to promote international
research collaborations; and the decision to earmark revenues from a recent
increase in on-campus parking fees to help fund environmental sustainability
projects.

Town Hall moderator Morton Mendelson, Deputy Provost, Student Life and
Learning, encouraged all members of the McGill community to submit further
comments or questions by email to heather.munroe.blum@mcgill.ca.